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12/03/2004: "Wichita Police Department and Local Media Screw Up --- Big Time."

This space is ordinarily devoted to marketing and advertising issues. But since I own this space, I'm going to write about something I feel very strongly about --- civil liberties --- and how one man's civil liberties were violently trampled on yesterday in this city.

Yesterday, our local cops and local media made a mess of one man's life. I won't go into the details but suffice it to say, he was arrested with the whole town, indeed the nation, thinking he was BTK (Bind Torture and Kill), the notorious serial killer.

His door was kicked in. His house staked out. His picture put in the paper and on television stations.

The following is a portion of what was in The Wichita Eagle this morning in an article by STAN FINGER AND TIM POTTER.

News of the arrest, published in Thursday's Eagle -- and the speculation that followed -- attracted a steady stream of gawkers to the street next to the man's house.

"It is a travesty when you look at the impact, and you look at what has happened to a neighborhood because of the fact that people assume that the Wichita Police Department was making an arrest in regards to BTK," Williams said at a crowded news conference.

"We have not, and I repeat, we have not made an arrest in connection with BTK."

The killer, who dubbed himself BTK -- short for "bind, torture and kill" -- resurfaced in March after nearly 25 years of silence when he sent a letter to The Eagle. Police say he has killed at least eight Wichitans since 1974.

A tip to the BTK hotline led authorities to the man who lived in south Wichita, Williams told The Eagle on Thursday morning, and in the course of investigating his background they discovered outstanding warrants. When that happens, he said, authorities have no choice but to arrest the person.

For the complete story, go here.

For those of you who have not heard of BTK, here is his background as we in Wichita know it.

BTK HISTORY

Jan. 15, 1974: Joseph and Julie Otero, 38 and 34, were strangled in their home at 803 N. Edgemoor in Wichita, Kan. along with two of their children, Josephine, 11, and Joseph II, 9. The family car was later found in a store parking lot at Central and Oliver. Within a few days, police released a sketch of a suspicious man seen near the Otero home the morning of the murders.

April 4, 1974: Kathryn Bright, 21, was stabbed to death in her home at 3217 E. 13th in Wichita. Kathryn's brother, Kevin, survived the attack despite being shot twice.

October 1974: The Wichita Eagle-Beacon newspaper received a letter from a person claiming to have killed the Oteros and included details of the crime scene that only the killer could have known. The author signed with these "code words": bind them, torture them, kill them: BTK. (Many details of BTK's letters have been withheld by police and reproductions are rarely seen.)

March 17, 1977: Shirley Vian, 24, was found bound and strangled in her home at 1311 S. Hydraulic in Wichita.

Dec. 8, 1977: Nancy Fox, 25, was found bound and strangled in her home at 843 S. Pershing in Wichita. BTK's voice was captured on tape when he called a police dispatcher to report the homicide.

Jan. 31, 1978: A letter containing a poem written with a child's printing set on an index card arrived at the Wichita Eagle-Beacon. The poem, which was patterned after a "Curly Locks" nursery rhyme, referred to the Vian homicide. The writer also referred to a mysterious "factor x."

Feb. 10, 1978: A letter from BTK arrived at Wichita's KAKE-TV station claiming responsibility for the deaths of Vian and Fox, as well as another unnamed victim. The letter included a poem titled "Oh! Death to Nancy." The poem adapted lines from a folk song called "Oh, Death." Police Chief Richard LaMunyon soon announced that a serial killer was at large and threatening to kill again.

April 28, 1979: The killer waited inside a home in the 600 block of South Pinecrest in Wichita, but left before the 63-year-old female occupant returned. He later sent the woman a letter letting her know he had planned to kill her but had gotten tired of waiting for her to return home. Police believed the killer was targeting the woman's daughter.

Aug. 15, 1979: Wichita residents listened to repeated radio and television broadcasts of the voice of the BTK strangler from the 1977 phone recording. Police received 110 tips during the first day the broadcasts aired.

Mid-1980s: A new BTK investigation was opened by a group known as "The Ghostbusters," which spent three years employing new techniques including DNA testing, computer database searches and psychological profiles.

Sept. 16, 1986: Vicki Wegerle, 28, was strangled in her home at 2404 W. 13th in Wichita. The family car was found two blocks away in the 1300 block of North Edwards.

January 1988: The wife of Wichita murder victim Phillip Fager received a letter from a man claiming to be BTK. The letter mentioned the killing of Fager and his two daughters but denied responsibility for the crimes. While the Fager murders were very similar to BTK's, experts disagree whether BTK was responsible. A local man named Bill Butterworth was tried in the Fager murders but was acquitted.

March 19, 2004: A letter arrived at the Wichita Eagle containing a photocopy of Vicki Wegerle's driver's license and three pictures of the crime scene that apparently were taken by her killer. (Relatives said the license was the only thing missing from Wegerle's home.) The BTK case was once again a full-scale investigation.

April 7, 2004: An anonymous letter containing a photo of an unidentified baby was received by Wichita's KSN-TV station. Apparently believing it could be a clue from BTK, the station immediately publicized the photo in an attempt to identify the baby. Apparently it was unsuccessful.

May 5, 2004: Wichita's KAKE-TV station received a multi-page letter from BTK, with the heading "The BTK Story" and a chapter titled "P.J.'s." The letter also included word puzzles and hints at his method of gaining access to the homes of his victims.

June 17, 2004: The Wichita Police Dept. received a letter from BTK that apparently included more details of the Otero murders.

July 17, 2004: A suspicious letter was discovered at the main branch of the Wichita Public Library and turned over to the FBI as a possible communication from BTK.

Aug. 21, 2004: The Wichita Police Dept. announced that the folklore song 'Oh, Death' was used in an English literature class at Wichita State University during the 1970s, taught by Dr. P.J. Wyatt. Since BTK used an adaptation of that song in a 1978 letter, police theorized BTK had a relationship of some kind with Wyatt, who died of cancer in 1991.

Nov. 30, 2004: The Wichita Police Dept. revealed new information about BTK's alleged background.

Here is what I sent in an e-mail to The Wichita Eagle

As a former journalist (editor, reporter and newspaper owner) I know what sort of decision the paper faced. The fact is, the police made a mistake and they had to blame someone. That "someone" is almost always the media.

While I always wanted to get my story and outdo the other media, I preferred to err on the side of the individual's rights. While I know nothing about the man arrested, I feel a bit sorry for him and for his family. I think his civil liberties were stripped bare by police and media and that includes the newspaper who put his photo in its pages.

His life will probably never be the same and, although he was not charged with a major crime, his reputation was sullied and he'll always be remembered for what happened yesterday. This was both a police screw-up and a media screw-up of major proportions.

I always had a practice of never publishing something until it was fact. I always put the individual and his rights first because in this country, that's where it belongs. WPD stomped all over this man's rights. Then when they were caught with their collective pants down, they looked for someone to blame --- this is what bureaucrats do --- and the media made perfect fall guys.

The citizens were left disappointed that BTK is still among us and free. The police look stupid and incompetent (not an unfair assessment) and the media helped perpetuate the whole thing. This was not a good thing.